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The blood of life is actually the breath of life, and setting the stone ablaze in an iron flame… I close the journals and sit back in my chair. The six doesn’t refer to riders. “They’re dragons,” I say out loud in the empty library.
spartan decor
Interesting that Sparta existed in this realm...
Pretty sure Kai—the lone first-year flier without Luella—is going to beat them all. He’s currently on the couch between a couple of first-years, his spiky black hair bobbing, a dimple forming in his bronze cheek as he laughs
Kai <3
the drift leader and our new XO—is
What is XO??? Hug, kiss? Seems a little fluffy
Bragen is the easiest of the fliers to get along with. He also spends a lot of time shooting longing looks Cat’s way.
I feel like shes going to have a Zoya-level redemption
But that’s why we wanted to talk to you, because it will mean you fliers wouldn’t be able to wield.” The fliers stare, stunned. Even Cat’s eyes flare wide with what almost looks like fear.
“I’m fully present and capable of protecting her,” Andarna snipes at Tairn. “You do not yet breathe fire.” “Fire would only serve to melt the mountain,” she reminds him, and I glance back to see her carefully picking her path, her scales reflecting the snow in an almost silvery sheen in places. “I still wield teeth and claw should the aristocrat bare her vitriol.”
And I’ve never been that good at producing them. Anything I wield with lesser magic is going to be swallowed up in this darkness.
Girl you suck at any kind of wielding
“You’re used to hoarding power,” she says with a dismissive shrug. “Not sharing it.
Says the one who wants Xaden for power
but I’m game to try
?
Solas roars in pain, his head swiveling back toward his shoulder, and through the opening, I see Cat poised in the dim light, nocking another arrow.
<3 Zoya redemption
Andarna walks into the light, but it’s not the blood covering her mouth that catches my attention—it’s the blood dripping from the poisoned barb on her tail. “You killed him.” My shoulders dip in relief. “You killed Solas.” Pride and worry assault me at the same time, but I can’t force my shields up before Tairn’s voice fills my very existence. “Slayer.”
“If she dies, then I’ll take the consequences. If they can’t channel, I’ll take those consequences, too. But not you. Never you. Gods, Violet. I’m doing everything in my power to both respect your freedom and keep you safe, and you’re…” He shakes his head. “I don’t even know what you’re doing.”
my mind racing with the deal he made, with him knowing, him testing me with his ridiculous questions.
“And the scars on my back are not your fault. Yes, your life was the unnamed price for the marked ones entering the quadrant.” He shrugs. “Your mother called in her favor, and I gave it. Do you want me to apologize for a deal I made before I knew you? Before I loved you? A deal that kept us alive? Started the flow of weaponry to the fliers? Because I won’t. I’m not sorry.”
“I’m pissed that you kept it from me, that you insist on making me ask for things you should openly share. How the hell am I in love with you when I feel like I barely know you sometimes?”
Good point gf
Ask me why. Ask me something! Fight back like you would have done last year before I broke your trust. Stop being so scared of the answers or waiting for me to give them to you. Demand the truth! I need you to love all of me—not just what you decide to see.”
“Love, you’re the smartest person I know. If you actually wanted the answers, you’d ask the right questions.”
and now half the time I don’t know what side of that line I’m standing on because I’m too busy looking at you to watch my own feet!”
“What’s your second signet?”
Ahhhh
His eyes widen, and the blood drains from his face as his hand falls away. For the first time, I think I’ve actually managed to shock Xaden Riorson. “I know you have one,” I whisper as the pounding continues. “You told me that Sgaeyl was bonded to your grandfather, which makes you a direct descendant. If a dragon bonds a family member, it can strengthen a signet, but a direct descendant will either produce a second signet…or madness, and you seem pretty sane to me.” He inhales sharply and forces his features into a mask.
Ok but how did no one else figure this out before?? It was just his grandpappy
“So much for asking. I just can’t figure out why Sgaeyl was allowed to choose you, how she got away with it. How you both did.”
Maybe he and I keep having the same fight because we never get to actually finish it. What in Malek’s name could his signet be if he went that pale?
It’s dragonfire that triggers the imbedded runes, and they obviously had enough dragons, so why wouldn’t they protect more of Navarre if they could?”
You knew I’d figure it out. Was it just another one of your ask me tests? Because if so, you failed this one, not me.” “Don’t you think I know that?” he shouts, the words coming out strangled, like they had to be ripped from his throat. The admission earns him my full attention, but his outburst is quickly smothered by his self-control, and we fall into strained silence as he stares off into the distance.
“Stop before you go somewhere we can’t come back from.” Shadows move across the inches that separate us, winding up my calves as if he thinks he’s going to have to fight to keep me at his side.
“I deserve better than this. Tell me the truth.” “You’ve always deserved better than me. And no one knows,” he repeats, his voice dropping. “Because if they did, I’d be dead.”
“Less than a minute,” Xaden whispers as Sgaeyl moves toward him—toward us. “That’s how long it took for you to fall out of love with me.” My gaze flashes to his. “Don’t read my…whatever!” Tairn stalks toward me, his head low and his teeth bared as he places himself at my back.
in defense of the simple yet agonizing truth that I love him anyway.
“Even if you believe nothing else I ever say, please believe that.” “Do not speak to her as if death is a possibility,” Tairn snaps, slamming his own shields around us both, an impenetrable wall of black stone, blocking out Xaden and Sgaeyl.
I’m quickly learning it’s possible to love someone and not want to be with them at the same time.
I’m just not sure how many this-times I have in me, no matter how much I love him.
It doesn’t escape my notice that Sgaeyl stands between Teine and Fann, Ulices’s cantankerous Green Swordtail, not next to Tairn, which either explains or is a result of his surly mood this morning. Mom and Dad are fighting, and everyone knows it.
“Violet?” It’s the blatant plea in his tone that has me lowering my shields just enough to feel our bond connect, and the resulting relief on his face is palpable. “If you decide to tell them what I am as punishment for the crimes I’ve committed against you, I’ll understand.”
“Did you ever use your signet to glean information to influence my feelings in any way?” “Never.” He shakes his head, but his hands clench at his sides and the muscle in his jaw pops. “But I have always lacked a certain element of self-control when it comes to you, and our bond makes it way too easy for you to send your intentions without even realizing it.” Death would be preferable to the embarrassment that accompanies that revelation. “I could torch him if you would like,” Tairn offers. “But you do seem attached.”
“No. I stopped the moment you were more to me than the general’s daughter, the moment I realized the harm Dain had done—and that I was no better than he was.”
Maybe I’m becoming complacent with betrayal because it’s fucking everywhere.
“You ready for this?” Mira asks, crossing in front of Xaden to stand beside me. “No,” I reply to Mira. “Are you?” “No.” She rests her hand on the pommel of the shortsword sheathed at her hip. “But she’ll never know that.” “I want to be you when I grow up.” A smile tugs at my lips despite the anxiety quickening my breaths.
“They’re going to overrun us at Samara,” Melgren interrupts. Everyone quiets.
I flip my dagger, pinching the tip in readiness to throw, but shadows jolt forward, knocking the sword from the captain’s hand and putting him on his ass. Xaden clicks his tongue and wiggles his pointer finger. “No, no. I’d hate to lose the spirit of civility, wouldn’t you? We were all getting along so nicely.”
I blink, everything in my body rebelling at the sentiment that civilians deserve to die because their leadership failed them, no matter who that leadership is.
the Great War
TAYLOR SWIFT?!?!
oh, wait. You cut off contact with them centuries ago. I suppose this really is farewell.”
Lolllll
“You have the heart of a rider but the mind of a scribe, Violet.
Is this why wyvern have suddenly reappeared? Did someone give the venin runes?
“You’re capable of hurting me in ways I’m not sure you’ve even begun to fathom, Violet. I might be skilled enough to land a death blow, but you alone have the power to fucking destroy me.”
“Now, we can talk here, or we can see if Sgaeyl and Tairn are done fighting and fly through this snowstorm to the nearest vacant peak, but make no mistake, we’re going to work this out.”
“We don’t keep secrets. No more ask me. No more tests to see who’s in and who’s out of this relationship. It’s full disclosure between us…” I take a steadying breath and map out the golden flecks in his eyes just in case it’s the last time. “Or it’s nothing.”
I’m not the easiest person to know, but I’ve learned my lesson, believe me.
“I need to know you won’t run, that you know you’ll never have to.”
